Television broadcasting technology has improved tremendously since its inception. Today, television signals are broadcast on the airwaves through cables and via satellite. The number of television stations accessible today has increased from one to hundreds of stations. To select a program to view, many viewers may perform what is commonly referred to as “channel surfing” until they find a channel that has a desired program. Channel surfing may refer to the process of using the channel “+” or “−” button on a remote control to sequentially view each channel. However, channel surfing may involve the television viewer spending an inordinate amount of time in searching for the desired channel.
Channel surfing may be avoided if the television viewer recalls the particular channel(s) airing the programs of interest. For example, suppose a television viewer desires to watch the news. Under the current technology, the television viewer may have to sequentially view each channel to find a station airing news or else recall the particular television channels that air news programs. However, the television viewer may not be able to recall which particular television channels air news programs. Furthermore, the television viewer may not know or be able to recall which television channels air news programs at the particular time of day the viewer desires to watch the news. Furthermore, the television viewer may not know if unscheduled news programs are airing. Subsequently, the television viewer's search for particular channels airing programs of interests may be inefficient and time consuming.
It would therefore be desirable for the television viewer to efficiently identify television stations of interest in a user-friendly environment.